Analytical and computational study of a novel waste-heat-recovery radial expander

据估计，加拿大制造过程中消耗的20-50%的能源最终损失在热排气流、冷却水和热表面和产品的热传递中排放的废热中。从这些废热中回收能源是一种零排放的替代品，可以替代昂贵的购买燃料或电力，并将大大减少加拿大工业的能源消耗和温室气体排放。拟议的研究项目将对一种新型废热回收概念进行分析和计算分析，该概念从进口温度相对较低的加压流体流中提取功。该装置是径向涡轮膨胀机，通过旋转机械和装置内流体之间相互作用产生的摩擦力来回收废热。与现有的热回收技术相比，概念化的涡轮膨胀器几何结构的简单性将使其制造和操作成本大大降低，并且有望达到足够高的效率，从而在石油和天然气处理设施中从废热中提取电力是经济的。通过第一性原理分析和深入的计算流体动力学模拟，该研究项目将确定最大功率和效率的最佳膨胀器配置，研究设备内气动损失的来源，并根据现有损失源的知识改进膨胀器的设计。该项目将开发出一种新型设备，可以从废热源中提取电力，比现有设备效率更高，成本更低，为加拿大的能源、石油、天然气和制造业节省大量资金和环境。

It is estimated that 20-50% of the energy consumed by Canadian manufacturing processes is ultimately lost viawaste heat emitted in hot exhaust streams, cooling water, and heat transfer from hot surfaces and products.Recovering energy from this waste heat is an emission-free substitute for costly purchased fuels or electricity,and will significantly reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of Canadian industry. Theproposed research project will conduct an analytical and computational analysis of a novel waste heat recoveryconcept that extracts work from a pressurized fluid stream with a relatively low inlet temperature. The device isa radial turboexpander that recovers waste heat through frictional forces arising from the interaction betweenthe rotating machinery and fluid within the device. The geometrical simplicity of the conceptualizedturboexpander will make it much cheaper to manufacture and operate compared to existing heat recoverytechnologies, and is expected to achieve a high enough efficiency so as to be economical for extracting powerfrom waste heat in oil and gas processing facilities. Through first-principles analytical analysis and in-depthcomputational fluid dynamics simulations of the fluid flow within the expander, the research project willidentify the optimum expander configuration for maximum power and efficiency, investigate the sources ofaerodynamic losses within the device, and improve the expander design based on the knowledge of the losssources that are present. The project will lead to a novel device that can extract power from waste heat sourceswith much higher efficiencies and lower costs than are currently available, bringing significant financial andenvironmental savings to Canada's energy, oil and gas, and manufacturing industries.